What is impossible…
Luke 18:27
“ But he said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’ ”
im·pos·si·ble
/imˈpäsəb(ə)l/
adjective
- not able to occur, exist, or be done.
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pos·si·ble
/päsəb(ə)l/
adjective
- able to be done; within the power or capacity of someone or something.
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We were not designed to do the impossible alone, let alone thrive even if we did accomplish anything extraordinary on our own accord. (John 15:5)
Luke 18:18–30 is the interaction between Jesus and the rich young ruler. A young man who had much, perhaps everything in the eyes of man of this world, yet the “everything” that he had was actually hindering him from that relationship with Christ.
Jesus wanted this man to follow him, but knew the man could not unless he distributed all that he had to the poor (Luke 18:22) which was impeding him from following Jesus in the first place.
The man left saddened, a slave to what he had.
Now comes the irony:
Luke 18:27–30 goes on to tell us that Jesus knows the difficulty of what giving up these things is, literally “impossible” to man to do alone. Yet, Jesus never leaves us alone to despair without giving us a glimpse of hope, a hope in form of a promise.
“ 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” …”
Did Jesus just promise us that surrendering all that we have to follow Him will ultimately multiply what we give up in this life and for eternity ?
And if what we tangibly have is only temporary, or transient, the multiplication of what He promises to give us when we follow Him must be greater than what we can sensibly see, correct ?
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV)
God is in the miracle business, just listen to RA Dickey’s testimony :
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Want to go a step deeper ? Judah Smith has some good insight below :
Living a life of Generosity — Rich Young Ruler — Judah Smith — City Church Seattle, WA
